RSC East Midlands newsletter "intouch" - Autumn 2006

the termly newsletter produced by RSC East Midlands

Autumn 2006

Volume 5 • Issue 1

Welcome edited by Martin Cooke I N S I D E ILT Advisor

It may be natural modesty, but we in colleges and Adult and Community Learning in the East Midlands are often a bit reluctant to proclaim the value of what we do. This year’s East Midlands e-fair offered the chance to celebrate achievements and share what works. In this issue you can read about some of the things explored in the workshops and exhibition - and see who you can spot in the pictures.

This issue

Welcome East Midlands e-fair 2006 Information Skills: support from RSC East Midlands

There’s good news about the future of Regional Support Centres. The Learning and Skills Council has agreed to fund RSCs until 2010 and we are busy planning how best to meet evolving learning provider needs. Recently introduced services such as the ILT Health Check and the Learning Journey clearly do this and on page 4 you can read about a new placement brokering service. This has been set up by Diane Wood who was herself taking part in another RSC initiative by being seconded to the RSC. To set out our services more clearly, we are launching our revised website at the start of October. In the meantime, you can find keynote and other presentations from the e-fair on our current website. Just follow the e-fair link from the home page.

If you would like to know more about anything you read, we would be delighted to hear from you.

National Learning Network Round 4 Materials e-fair montage e-portfolios: the state of the art or what will work?

Forthcoming events Focus on: RSC Placements Service Hints and Tips: Adding text when viewing a slide show

Chris Hill, Manager

Ideas Into Action It is important that professional development activities are enjoyable in themselves, but how do you ensure that the learning is applied once you get back to the ranch?

The East Midlands e-fair organised by the RSC at Derby University on 22 June was a really good day. Gilly Salmon and Terry Loane are inspirational speakers, fifteen breakout sessions by regional learning providers and others gave lots of ideas to think about, over thirty exhibitors set out a wealth of resources and support, and over 150 people were able to network with each other in a friendly, relaxed environment with good food, giveaway prizes and even free parking.

Colin Rose says that “learning takes place in direct proportion to the amount of fun people are having”, so plenty of learning certainly took place at the e-fair. But will anything happen to change what people do?

We asked delegates what actions they intended to take as a result of an idea encountered at the e-fair. Intentions, big and small, included: • feedback to my colleagues;

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• • • •

make a podcast; download free open source software; develop our use of Moodle with video clips; use the East Midlands Information Skills material for training; • undertake Athens Devolved Authentication; • visit the Learning and Skills Web website.

Will those actions be implemented? I’m sure some will but one of the RSC priorities for this coming year is to help you change more elearning ideas into actions. For example, if you attend an RSC event or activity either inhouse or elsewhere in the region, we will encourage you to plan for what you will do afterwards; RSC advisors will follow up activities to see what further help you need; to ensure that an event is not just an isolated day, we will provide material to think about beforehand and the chance to discuss and reflect online afterwards.

Incidentally, we also asked delegates, “What would you like the RSC to do for you?” Many

replies were very complimentary - “Keep doing everything you are doing already”.

However, we were also asked to supply a shoulder bag to carry all the goodies home and someone suggested it would be helpful if we could simply print money.

One of the best things about the e-fair is the opportunity to find out about the good things that other learning providers in the region are doing. If this year you try something in elearning for the first time and it works, we’d really like you to share it at next year’s fair!

Chris Hill, RSC Manager

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Information Skills:

support from RSC East Midlands

The e-fair gave local LRC/library staff the opportunity to publicise the successful launch of the East Midlands Information Skills Group. The Chair of the Group, Donna Harper, led a session in which she outlined how the Group have used Moodle to create collaborative Information Skills materials. Her presentation can be found on our website by following the ‘e-fair’ link on the homepage.

Midlands Moodle site http://moodle.rscem.ac.uk and are freely available for you to download and adapt as required.

New members

“To be information literate, a person must be Whilst current EMIS members represent able to recognise when information is needed well over half of the FE institutions in the and have the ability to locate, evaluate, East Midlands, it would be invaluable to and use effectively the needed have in the group at least one information…Ultimately, information literate people are those who have learned how to representative from every learning provider learn. They know how to learn because they in the region. Interested colleagues from know how knowledge is organised, how to Specialist Colleges, the Adult and A person who is ‘information literate’ is find information and how to use information in Community Learning Sector and Higher one who has good information skills. such a way that others can learn from them. Education supported by the RSC are also They are people prepared for lifelong learning, East Midlands Information Skills Group invited to join. because they can always find the information needed for any task or decision at hand”.

The East Midlands Information Skills Group If you would like to become a member and (EMIS), supported by the East Midlands contribute to the work of the Group, please American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy, 1989 RSC, was set up to support the contact either the current Chair, Donna collaboration and sharing of IS resources Harper: dharper@nnotts.ac.uk or myself, Judi Millage here at the RSC: judi.millage@rsc-em.ac.uk We and expertise within the region. During a successful first year, the would very much like to hear from you. group has produced a range of material to support the delivery of information skills. These materials are hosted on the RSC East Judi Millage, ILT Advisor

National Learning Network Round 4 Materials for the Adult and Community Learning sector NIACE saw the e-fair as an ideal opportunity to draw attention to the Round 4 NLN materials for Adult and Community Learning. You will find the presentation by Patsy Cummins and Sarah Perry on our website.

Just follow the ‘e-fair’ link on the homepage.

The development of Round 4 NLN Materials has created e-learning materials specifically for the ACL sector in the following subject areas: • Family learning • Making learning work for you • Modern foreign languages • English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) The Materials are a great source of ready-made e-learning resources that can be used in a variety of ways to help teaching and learning.

If you visit www.aclearn.net, examples of the materials are highlighted exploring how you might use these with your learners.

Accessing the materials If you work for a local authority which delivers ACL provision you can access the Materials in two main ways: • visit: www.aclearn.net and select the learning content section. This will take you to Xtensis, the site hosting the materials. You will need to register to access the materials and this requires a password. To do this you will need to contact your E-Guide coordinator for details.

• on CD ROM. All the Round 4 subject areas will be on CD and these are soon to be distributed to E-Guide coordinators.

If you are not sure who to contact in your organisation, or you have any questions about the new Round 4 Materials please email Sharon Hutchings at the RSC East Midlands for more details: sharon.hutchings@rsc-em.ac.uk Sharon Hutchings, ACL advisor

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intouch Clive Church ran an e-fair session following on from a one-day event in Nottingham in May, which highlighted key issues and developments in e-Portfolios for FE so that senior staff could be briefed to ask the right questions at the right time. Here Martin Cooke looks at the current state of play with e-portfolios

e-portfolios: the state of the art or what will work Essentially there are two approaches to e-portfolios – and all points in between. The reference model will be standardised, cross-sector and developed with government money. It has some way to go. There is as yet no agreement over what would be included, but it would need to combine both assessment and reflection. This implies the contribution of both learner and teacher/tutor. The local solution – cheap and cheerful but maybe less fraught with dangers and can be attempted now. Combining assessment and reflection, however, might be problematic.

Some may worry about the ownership of the information and the possible dangers of government use of personal data. Students may feel more inclined to use a system which is not accessible to ‘outsiders’.

Nottingham University and Nottingham City are collaborating on real-life interoperability. Buy-in from all sectors will pave the way towards greater interoperability.

Have a look at: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/epreferencemodel/index.htm and http://ferl.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=13900 Meanwhile you could buy into one of the numerous commercial vehicles available such as bksb or you could try the cheap and cheerful route via open source such as Elgg Elgg provides a kind of educational version of MySpace, a hybrid of weblogging, ePortfolios and social networking.

Elgg integrated with Moodle in June 2006.

As yet there is no agreed definition. The emphasis in HE is on self-reflection, while NVQs require a tick list of competencies.

Martin Cooke ILT Advisor

University of Derby 22 June 2006

Top: John Burke (JISC Inform); Gilly Salmon (Leicester University); and Terry Loane

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Forthcoming

FOCUS

EVENTS Some dates are provisional

October 19th

Learning Journey 2006: the National ILT Staff Development event

26th

Learning Journey

November 1st

LRC Forum

2nd

Specialist Colleges Forum

7th

JORUM - Outreach and training event

9th

Moodle Users Group

13th

Blended Learning

14th

Technical Forum

16th

Using ILT for learner support in Foundation Degrees and workplace learning

21st

HE Forum

22nd

InfoNet: Change Management

22nd

ILT Forum

28th

e-learning for teachers in Training

30th

InfoNet: CAMEL

December 4th

An Introduction to Moodle for Practitioners

5th

New Build Forum

7th

ACL Forum

12th

e-learning for teachers of teacher training

14th

Digital images and video: intro

ON...

RSC Placements Service Last year Diane Wood from Leicester College and Mark Andrews from Grantham College spent time on secondment to the RSC working on developing new RSC services. Mark looked at the use of the Moodle learning platform, and Diane the placement brokering service. If you are interested in using the placement service – or developing the RSC activities by a short term secondment to us - please contact us.

Here Diane explains what she did – and how she, Leicester College and the RSC all benefited.

My secondment to the RSC I am Learning Resources Advisor at Leicester College. My role within the LRC is to support various curriculum areas, including Construction, Hair & Beauty, Continuing Studies and Hospitality & Sport. I support all delivery staff in raising awareness and embedding e-learning into their teaching programmes. By attending various JISC workshops over the past 18 months I have been able to develop effective relationships with the RSC team.

I have recently completed a three month secondment with JISC East Midlands RSC to set up a new service offering short-term placements to all staff working in e-learning related roles in colleges and ACL. The purpose of the scheme is to share good practice in e-learning between individuals and providers. I was able to witness first-hand the quality and extent of work being

Hints

and

produced to improve the learner’s experience and how it contributes to their success.

In setting up the scheme I visited a range of learning providers within the region, including specialist colleges and adult learning. This gave me a number of opportunities to improve my personal and professional skills, in particular, networking, presentation, communication, influencing and action research.

I feel that all parties have benefited through my placement.

• the Regional Support Centre – by raising the RSC profile through an additional service to learning providers within the East Midlands region.

• Leicester College – my ability to develop and improve existing e-learning practice through my experience of the secondment.

• me personally – building new relationships and partnerships across the region, whilst increasing my confidence and continuing my on-going professional development.

I would like to thank everyone involved in the secondment including all staff I met at learning providers, for their hospitality, valuable time and expertise, everyone at JISC RSC for making me feel part of the team and valued from day one. Finally, but by no means least, Leicester College, without whose agreement this would not have happened.

Diane Wood, Leicester College

Tips:

Adding text while viewing a slide show PowerPoint text boxes using the Control Bar You can get your learners more actively involved in your PowerPoint presentations by using the text box facility. It lets you add text to a slide during the presentation.

Make sure you have a blank slide.

View

Toolbars

Control Toolbox Drag the text box to your desired size and shape Text Box

January 16th

21st June 2007

Digital images and video: next steps e-Fair

Text cannot be entered in edit mode – you need to view the slide show.

For some reason known only to Microsoft (bless them!) the text defaults to one line and no return. So you have to change the settings.

Right-click on the text box and click on Properties.

Change Multiline to True

See our website for further details

www.rsc-em.ac.uk

Change EnterKeyBehaviour to True Word Wrap should default to True but check to see.

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